Brussels, 24/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has launched the first round of negotiations with Hungary on future Structural Fund assistance between 2004 and 2006. With EUR 2 billion in Structural Funds and 1.12 billion in Cohesion Funds, Hungary will be the second new Member State to benefit from cohesion policy. Announced on Wednesday, negotiations were officially launched on 16 July with a letter addressed by Commissioner Michel Barnier to the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, Endre Juhàsz. Hungary is made up of seven regions, all of which are eligible for Structural Funds. Negotiations will cover the Community Support Framework, a general document that fixes priorities for all programmes, as well as operational programmes, which give details of these major principles. "The expenditure under these programmes applies from 1 January 2004", the Commissioner for regional policy recalled in his letter to the Hungarian authorities.
Negotiations have already begun with Poland (EUROPE of 28 June, p.14) and with the Czech Republic. They will be launched on Friday with Slovenia (see following article).